The Outlander Siblings ﴾TLG﴿

Tau's Resolve / Confession (Pt. 1)

Tau had just woken up in Neema's den, the lion looking over at the mother leopard with her three cubs hiding behind her hind leg, spooked at the lion they were unfamiliar with.

"How did I wind up here Neema?" Tau asked the leopard rubbing the pain on his head, "You were found unconscious not far from here. I heard someone shouting and so I went to look to find you laying on the ground unconscious."

She looked at him, puzzled as to what could have happened to him, "Speaking of which, what happened?" she asked. Tau looked a bit worried to bringing up the name of who made him unconscious, after what had happened to Njue.

A moment pause before he finally decided to tell her what had happened, how he was helping Pridelanders return home, how Kama almost killed him, and that he failed to protect at least one of the Pridelanders from harm. It felt like a hard defeat for him, working to protect any stray Pridelander that falls into the Outlands and help them get back.

Tau soon took notice of the three cubs still hiding, he lowered himself to the ground so that he could be eye height with the three. They looked at him curiously, "It's alright, I won't hurt you." He said to them reassuring to them that he means no harm. After a few moments of waiting, one of the cubs decided to approach the lion, it was the sister of the three who approached him first.

As she slowly got closer, she gave a playful swat on the lion's muzzle. It started out nervously and curiously before she felt comfortable playing around with him. The two brothers took notice of this and started to approach Tau as well.

The mother watched her cubs feeling relaxed near Tau, the sister was just swatting around his face playfully as another had gotten on top of his head, and the one with a missing paw was nibbling on the lion's ear.

"Alright, that tickles!" Tau said to the leopard cub that was attacking his ear, "Stop, please!" he begged the cub, but he didn't stop.

Neema let out a small chuckle at Tau's unfortunate event, showing her guest some mercy, she went and scoop up the one tugging on his ear, "Alright Nyota, that's enough." She said to the cub. The lion raised his head a bit and the other brother on his head started to roll down his back and to the ground gently upside down.

The sister taking notice of that quickly raced over to her brother and started swatting at him playfully this time. Tau had managed to get himself up from the ground, noticing the two cubs playing around with one another as the other was playing with his mother's tail that swayed around.

"Thank you, Tau." Neema said to the lion which caught him off guard, "What for?" he asked.

She looked at her cubs with a smile, "For bringing us food to survive on." He let out a small blush of embarrassment, "You noticed?" he asked.

She gave a smile, "I could recognize your scent on them, and for that I wanted to thank you."

Tau looked happily at her but felt a sadness in him as well, "I was just repaying the favor to Njue when he saved me and my brother from starvation." He said looking over the cubs, sad that Njue never got to see his cubs. But Neema took notice of Tau's sadness.

She let out a sigh, "You need to stop blaming yourself for what happened to him." She said to Tau, "It was not your fault, and I know Njue would never blame you for it either." She said to assure the lion, but for some reason, it didn't feel enough to him.

She walked up next to Tau and placed a paw on his head, giving it a rub, "You should not let the past define who you are Tau, don't let my mate's life be stained with grief and sorrow." She said to him, a small smile came from the lion, "Thanks Neema, you always did know what to say to make me feel better."

Neema removed her paw from Tau, "Just remember that you are always welcomed here, you're like family to me." Hearing those words were comfortable to him, 'Family'... It was a comfortable feeling to hear, but this feeling was quickly cut short when he noticed the time.

Looking outside, he saw the sun was starting to set, "I have to go!" Tau shouted as he was about to race out before he remembered, "Thanks again for the help, and I promise, I'll speak to you again!" he said quickly rushing out.

'Oh no, Janja's going to be worried!' he thought to himself trying to move as fast as possible towards his den. A voice calling out caught his attention, "Tau?!" stopping to see where it came from to see a familiar face, "Jasiri?!" he said finding the purple female hyena staring at him with tears in her eyes.

Tau looked on at her in fear, 'Why is she crying?' he slowly approached her, "What happened Jasiri?" he asked worried for her. Jasiri didn't say anything, instead she raced towards Tau and placed her head into his chest, "I was worried about you!" she said muzzling through his fur.

A sudden guilt came over Tau as he watched his best friend and crush was crying for him, he had not wanted to make her worried, but he did. "I'm sorry Jasiri, but I'm fine. Promise!" he said to try and reassure her.

He remembered the words from Kulua, 'Are you happy?' and right at this moment, feeling Jasiri's comfort against him. He felt safe and warm, "I'm right here Jasiri." He whispered into her ear to comfort her.

It was a few moments before the two managed to break apart, they both had the look of embarrassment for showing the other their 'emotional' side to one another.

Tau came to realize something, if he were to have died then, he would no longer have a chance to tell her how he really feels about her. Taking a deep breath, "Jasiri, I want to say something." He said to the hyena.

She looked at the lion with a curious look, "Sure, what did you want to talk about?" trying to be serious with Tau. Tau struggled, feeling a bit tongue tied on how he was going to ask this.

"I've been wondering, after that fight between me and Kama. I started thinking that I might not have this chance again to say this. I don't want to leave you without you knowing something-" he started saying, Jasiri couldn't tell how to feel with whatever he had to say to her.

The sun shining, casting a shadow of the two against a cliff. The lion's shadow slowly approached to the hyena's and gave a quick nuzzle on the nose to the hyena.

Jasiri stood a bit shock at this, raising her paw against her nose where Tau had just nuzzled it, "I love you Jasiri!" he said. She was only more shocked at how much Tau had changed since this morning. As she was about to respond, Tau quickly rushed away, afraid of if Jasiri would be mad at him for what he did.

Author Note:

Hey Everyone, FireKilledMe here with the next chapter. I wound up being delayed by a day to post this because I forgot how bad my parents' internet is (They live in the woods with minimal internet speed)... After the surgery, I was to stay with them while recovering since I live alone, and we had no idea if there would be any infection or other problems where they would need to get me there fast.

I'll get the next chapter ready really soon, now that I have some time to spare on writing. Pain is more or less all gone (Just cramps in the stomach and chest) and difficult breathing. (Not because of the Virus...) Anyways, it's about time Tau had confess his feelings for Jasiri... But did he really have to run away like that?

Well, next chapter will be the conclusion to 'Confession' and we'll see what happens then. Thank everyone for the support and I appreciate the comments.